Had hemi glossectomy 9/29. Surgery went well and immediately after little pain after. But now that swelling is going down having lot of pain. Also had neck dissection no trach. Side where my tongue is remaining working good. But flap overlays my teeth on affected side. How will I ever be able to chew when the flap lays on teeth. Will selling going down change this.

Sorry I meant to say I had reconstruction from free form flap

I did not have a flap done but I was biting my tongue a bunch when it was still a bit swollen and I thought it was because it was laying funny and part of it was sort of landing between my teeth and getting bit. But now the swelling is pretty much gone and that doesn't happen. If I talk a whole lot, I feel like my tongue is swelling up and it feels uncomfortable. Probably need to give it more time to see how the swelling goes down. Glad the surgery went well. Denise

My "new" tongue also stuck out between my teeth in the first few weeks after my partial glossectomy. The swelling reduced and it snuck back behind my teeth where it is supposed to be, after a little while. During this time when part of it rested below my teeth, I couldn't chew very much at all, so I was eating a mostly liquid diet.

I had 4 surgeries to remove parts of my tongue, but no flap. It was very swollen after each surgery making eating and speaking diffucult. Swelling did go down eventually, but after surgery #1 it was swollen for a long time. Your tongue should return to "normal" size.

Thanks everyone, the swelling is decreasing but I just posted the craziest new problem with this new tongue on the After Treatment section. Topic Biting thru the newly reconstructed tongue. Please read it, hopefully you can help.